Church: Back then we thought Pedophiles could be cured

The pastor at St. James Cathedral resumed the witness stand Thursday in the trial against the Seattle Archdiocese, acknowledging that years ago, the archdiocese put known child molesters back in parishes, following the advice of counselors who treated the abusive priests.

Back then, the Very Rev. Michael G. Ryan testified, church leaders believed child sexual abuse was treatable, if not curable.

“Given what’s known about it now, putting the offending priests back in parishes was the wrong thing to do, he said. “We should be sorry, and we are sorry.”

His testimony came during the trial of a lawsuit filed by two men who said the Seattle Archdiocese didn’t do enough to protect them from Patrick O’Donnell, a former Spokane Diocese priest who served at St. Paul Church in Rainier Beach from 1976-1978.

Then-bishop Bernard Topel of Spokane had sent O’Donnell to Seattle for sexual-deviancy treatment. O’Donnell, who testified earlier this week, has admitted molesting both men when they were children attending St. Paul’s.

Years before the trial, the archdiocese had acknowledged that it allowed child molesters to serve in parishes after professionals said it was OK to do so.

Its policy now is different, calling for it to notify law-enforcement and place an accused priest on administrative leave as soon as an allegation comes in. The policy bars from ministry any priest found to have been credibly accused of even one incident of child sexual abuse.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Michael Pfau asked Ryan if it would have been reasonable back then to warn parishioners about abusive priests.

Ryan said from the standpoint of today, yes. And back then, not telling parishioners was not done for “any sinister reason,” he said.

But Ryan said that during his time on an archdiocesan board dealing with priest personnel issues, no concerns about O’Donnell came before the board, and he had never read documents about O’Donnell in the archdiocese’s “secret archives,” which contain sensitive information about priests.

The Rev. Thomas Doyle, an expert on Catholic Church law, also testified, saying that under church law, Topel should have investigated allegations that came to him about O’Donnell, and that Topel would have been obligated to tell then-Seattle Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen about O’Donnell’s history.

Hunthausen, now retired, is expected to take the stand Monday.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”

………Sarah Tofte

Judge condemns police for leniency with Repeat Sex Offender

“If there are no consequences for their actions there is no deterrent and these people will re-offend, which leaves vulnerable children at risk.”

“I do not think we can afford to err on the side of laxity at all.

“Unfortunately there are still examples of occasional leniency that have horrifying repercussions.”

Craig Mason, 21, was given a sexual offences prevention order in December 2004 for having sex with underage girls.

But after breaching the order he was only given a caution by police and was allowed to remain free.

Sex offender Mason went on to breach the order a further three times between April 2005 and March 2007 and commit four sexual acts against children.

Judge Charles Wide, sitting at Northampton Crown Court [last week – 1/5/09], criticised police for letting Mason off with a caution.

He said: “I’m very concerned that someone was cautioned in these circumstances and at the same time he was committing these serious offences.”

Mason admitted four charges of sexual acts against children, including two of intercourse, as well as three other breaches of the prevention order.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of a sexual act with a child under 16 and admitted two more charges of a sexual act with a child.

He denied two charges of sexual touching.

He breached his sexual offences prevention order on three occasions between April 30 2005 and March 01 2007, between October 28 2005 and July 1 2006, and between January 31 2006 and April 1 2006.

The court heard that Mason, of Irthlingborough, Northants, had previous convictions for three indecent assaults and two of sexual intercourse with underage girls.

A Northamptonshire Police spokesman said they would not comment on ongoing cases.

A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service said: “If the police issued him with a caution for the initial breach that matter would have been considered dealt with.”

Mason was released on bail and the case adjourned for sentencing until May 28.

Michele Elliott, director of children’s charity Kidscape, said: “The reality is that you might as well spit into the wind when it comes to cautioning sex offenders.

“If there are no consequences for their actions there is no deterrent and these people will re-offend, which leaves vulnerable children at risk.”

Sandra Brown, founder of children’s campaign group The Moira Anderson Foundation, said: “It really underlines the need for monitoring arrangements to be absolutely clear cut.

“I do not think we can afford to err on the side of laxity at all.

“Unfortunately there are still examples of occasional leniency that have horrifying repercussions.”

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”

………Sarah Tofte

Tanner Stickney & girlfriend Rhonda J. Bays – Pedophile Duo Busted

A Washington, D.C., man bragged about his plans to visit Orlando last week to have sex with a child, federal officials allege.

Now, Tanner Stickney, 29, is behind bars — and so is his ex-girlfriend, a Central Florida woman accused of playing a role in the supposed sexual rendezvous.

Stickney was arrested by FBI agents Friday after his flight landed at Orlando International Airport. He faces charges of possessing child pornography persuading a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct.

The woman, Rhonda J. Bays, 39, of Eustis was arrested Saturday and faces one count of conspiring with another for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct. She made her initial appearance in federal court Monday.

According to the criminal complaint filed against Stickney, federal agents searched his apartment and found several videos of boys engaged in sexual acts. They also found a video camera on a bedroom bookshelf and a four-minute video showing a child, about 8 to 10 years old, engaged in sexual acts with an adult male.

The adult in that video appears to be Stickney, the complaint says.

In an online chat last week, Stickney told an undercover detective he was coming to Orlando to have “sexual contact” with a child and that “he had previously had sexual contact with that child,” prosecutors allege. The child’s age and identity were not disclosed.

FBI agents watched Stickney as he boarded a flight Friday morning and changed planes in Charlotte, N.C. They arrested him when he arrived in Orlando and seized his cell phone, laptop computer and an external storage device. They found more than 100 movie files depicting children in sexual activities, the complaint alleges.

They also found “chats” with “Rhoni” on Stickney’s cell phone. Several text messages “Rhoni” sent Stickney were included in the criminal complaint filed against her.

Early Saturday, FBI agents met Bays at her home. According to the federal account, she told investigators she met Stickney through Facebook and that they were engaged in a sexual relationship but broke up in February.

Bays said that Stickney “fantasizes about engaging in sexual acts with ‘little boys,’ as well as ‘molestation,’” and “that she engages in these sexual molestation chats with Stickney as part of his fantasy.” her criminal complaint says.

A Department of Children and Families spokeswoman confirmed the agency launched a child-abuse investigation into Bays, who is a mother, on Saturday, and that the victim is not her own child.

Stickney and Bays are being held at the Seminole County Jail

Bays said little during Monday’s hearing. A man who said he is close to Bays but asked not to be identified, told the Orlando Sentinel that none of her friends and relatives believe the woman would do what investigators allege.

“I’m still in shock,” he said. “Because I know Rhonda and she’s not a child molester. Plain and simple.”

It’s always shocking

Christopher Dominick Mauro – Child molesting – Babysitting – Child Pornographer

An child pornography task force said it arrested a Lakeland man Wednesday on charges that he molested an 8-year-old girl and videotaped himself doing it.

Authorities say Christopher Dominick Mauro was babysitting the Largo girl at the time the alleged acts took place at his Lakeland home, where they reported finding more child pornography.

And where did authorities say they found Mauro? In St. Petersburg, with the alleged victim.

Mauro, 29, was arrested Wednesday on one count of lewd and lascivious molestation and two counts of promoting the sexual performance of a child.

He is accused of videotaping himself fondling a nude 8-year-old girl in a bathtub and molesting the child while she was asleep in bed, according to arrest reports.

When the victim woke up, the reports said, Mauro “acted” as if he had just awoken, too, and told the child: “I was having a dream about my girlfriend.”

The investigation into Mauro started, authorities said, when a female roommate discovered that Mauro hadexplicit photos of a young girl on his computer. Police got a search warrant on Wednesday toinvestigate Mauro’s home at 6258 Peacock Run in Lakeland.

“The roommate knew he was taking this girl back to Largo,” said Lakeland Police Sgt. Gary Gross.

Task force members included Lakeland police officers, Pinellas sheriff’s deputies and Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents. They arrested Mauro without incident on Wednesday while he was with the child at an undisclosed St. Petersburg location.

When authorities questioned Mauro about the allegations, the arrest reports said, he told them: “I cannot recall and I do not remember.”

The identity of the victim was not disclosed. Mauro is a friend of the victim’s family, authorities said.

Mauro was booked into the Pinellas County jail where he is being held in lieu of $130,000 bail.

The investigation is continuing, and more state and federal charges could be filed.

Todd J. Lance – Repeat Sex Offender –

“It’s the court’s job to make sure there is not a third victim because the chance of recidivism is not only frighteningly high, it is guaranteed,” Perkins said. “This is a dangerous, dangerous person and despite all the good things that were said about him that may be one side to him, the other side is a sexual monster.”

Todd J. Lance’s past came back to haunt him Tuesday.

The convicted sex offender was sentenced to nine years in prison for molesting a girl while he still was on probation for his first crime.

The 48-year-old man faced three to 14 years in prison. He is eligible for parole after serving half the prison term.

“The molestation of a child is probably the most serious offense – short of homicide – that one can commit,” DuPage Circuit Judge John Kinsella said. “It’s difficult to ever measure the effect this can have on a child.”

Kinsella convicted Lance Jan. 30 of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for fondling the child, who was 11 or 12, beneath her clothing one night in 2003 in Elmhurst. She did not report the abuse until April 2007 to a school counselor.

Her outcry sparked an emotional court case. The girl’s father stood by her, but her mother and sister sided with Lance. One-half dozen sheriff deputies stood guard Tuesday in the courtroom gallery filled with both victims, relatives and members of Lance’s church who insisted he is a changed man.

Afterward, as deputies led Lance off to jail, the brother of Lance’s first victim shouted, “Burn in hell, Todd.” Deputies ordered him and another woman out of the courtroom.

In his earlier crime, Lance was accused of molesting a boy, beginning when the child was in the third grade, about three times a week for nine years. Lance pleaded guilty to the crime in April 2000, and was ordered to serve a one-year work-release jail sentence and four years’ of a stricter form of probation. He also had to register as a sex offender.

He later became active in Elmhurst’s West Suburban Community Church, which is how he met the girl’s family, and still was on probation when she said the abuse occurred.

Police arrested Lance in April 2007 after they said he admitted fondling her. But Lance testified during his January trial that it was an accident.

Lance said he unintentionally touched her while asleep because he thought she was his wife, who also was in the bed and had allowed her daughter to climb in with them after the child had a nightmare.

His defense team, Stacey McCullough and Daniel Brown, sought the minimum punishment after citing Lance’s strong work ethic, church involvement and community and family support. Prosecutors Brian Perkins and Enza LaMonica asked for a 12-year term.

“It’s the court’s job to make sure there is not a third victim because the chance of recidivism is not only frighteningly high, it is guaranteed,” Perkins said. “This is a dangerous, dangerous person and despite all the good things that were said about him that may be one side to him, the other side is a sexual monster.”

The girl now lives with her father in Lake County. Lance’s last address was in Downers Grove. Upon his release from prison, Lance must serve four years’ of mandatory supervised release and continue to register as a convicted sex offender.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”

………Sarah Tofte

Clint Nevitt – Repeat Sex Offender – Gets 18 years in Plea Deal

In a taped interview with police, a 41-year-old Middletown mother accused of arranging for her 11-year-old daughter to have sex with a registered sex offender for money said she was “ashamed of herself” for letting her daughter down.

The woman is charged with three counts of complicity to rape. She appeared with her attorney Monday, March 16, in Butler County Common Pleas Court for a hearing on whether to suppress statements she made to Middletown police.

She mostly hung her head and cried during the 60-minute session where her attorney L. Patrick Mulligan argued that her confession to police was coerced. Mulligan said police made promises to her in exchange for her statements.

Clint Nevitt, 33, of 211 Lylburn Road in Middletown, pleaded guilty last month to three counts of rape and two counts of gross sexual imposition for having sex with the 11-year-old as well as another 9-year-old Middletown girl. He is expected to receive 18 years in jail as part of a plea bargain when he is sentenced on May 11.

In a taped interview played for Butler County Common Pleas Judge Patricia Oney, the mother said she was abused as a child and was ashamed of herself for letting her daughter down.

The woman said she arranged for Nevitt to have sex with her daughter two or three times and that she witnessed the sex acts. She offered no reason for arranging the meeting.

When Middletown Juvenile Detectives Fred Shuemake and Janice Jones asked if Nevitt paid her for sex with her daughter, the woman denied receiving any money herself.

“He didn’t give me no money,” the woman said in the recorded statement. “I heard he paid $150 to (her daughter).”

At one point in the interview the woman said she wanted to kill herself because she was so ashamed.

“I knew it was wrong,” she said.

Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer McElfresh argued the woman’s statement was not coerced and pointed to statements that Jones and Shuemake made noting they could not determine if the woman would go to prison for her actions.

“There were no promises made,” McElfresh told the judge.

Oney did not immediately rule on the motion to suppress. The woman’s trial is scheduled to begin on April 28.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”

………Sarah Tofte

Terry Joe Leggio – Convicted Baby Raper – Hiring hit man brings new charges

A convicted sex offender is accused of trying to hire a hit man. Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilbur says Terry Joe Leggio planned to pay someone to murder three young girls, their mother and a sheriff’s investigator. Terry Leggio lived with his ex-girlfriend and her children for two years. It was during that time, Leggio sexually assaulted the two girls. Leggio sat in court Monday afternoon, as a judge sentenced him to 50 years in prison for his crimes. Moments after the judge finished, Iowa Department of Criminal Investigators hit him with brand new charges.

Court documents show Leggio felt “he was wrongly convicted of his crimes and that his attorney was going to file for a new trial.” The papers show Leggio wanted the victims on his list to disappear, so they were “unable to testify (deceased) that a case and more importantly a conviction could not be made.”

Sitting in a tiny cell at the Pottawattamie County Jail, Leggio is accused of plotting a murder for hire scheme all from behind bars. Pottawattamie County Sheriff Sergeant Dwayne Riche is one of those people claimed to be on Leggio’s hit list. Court documents claim Leggio hired another inmate, referred to as a “Confidential Informant” in the documents, to help him carry out his plan. Sgt. Riche says it’s the inmate who told him Leggio wanted him dead. Sgt. Riche says, “He had relayed to me that the individual, Terry Leggio, was plotting or trying to conspire to have the victims disappear was the word he used and me killed.” Sgt. Riche continues to say, “He wanted me shot in the head or my truck blown up.”

According to court documents Leggio asked his mother, Susan Leggio, to help. Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilbur says a letter captured by the jail administration, “laying out some of the details. It was a letter that was written by Mr. Leggio to his mother.” Susan Leggio is being charged in connection with the murder plot. The papers show Susan was trying to find social security numbers of the potential victims. Susan Leggio has been booked in the Marshall County, Iowa jail.

Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation says the “Confidential Informant is currently awaiting sentencing on federal charges. The C.I. has stated that any assistance provided would be appreciated but that the thought of children being murdered after they were sexually abused by Leggio would have made him come forward in any event.”

Brian Jay Nellis – 51 years without parole for aiding pedophile

A convicted sex offender accused of helping a man pose as a 12-year-old boy and enroll in Arizona schools has been sentenced to 51 years in prison.

Yavapai County Judge Robert Brutinel handed down the sentence Monday to 37-year-old Brian Jay Nellis of Chino Valley.

Nellis was sentenced to three consecutive 17-year sentences with no chance of parole stemming from three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Nellis declined to speak when Brutinel asked him if he had anything to say.

Nellis was accused of helping 29-year-old Neil Havens Rodreick pose as a 12-year-old and trick four Arizona middle schools into allowing him to attend school as a student.

Nellis posed as Rodreick’s cousin; they lived with two older men posing as Rodreick’s uncle and grandfather.

ENABLER – Pastor Todd Thomas – Hired convicted sex offender to work in nursery school

Thomas defended his hire saying
he didn’t believe Buffington was a threat.

Would you hire a registered sex offender to work at a nursery school? One local pastor did and is defending his decision.

Five parents pulled their children from Bethesda Cooperative Nursery School after learning the hired maintenance man, Travis Buffington, is a registered sex offender.

Ellen Burgess, the school’s director, says she did not hire Buffington — Pastor Todd Thomas did. Thomas apparently did so knowing Buffington, 33, had served time for possession of child pornography.

“We have heard and understood the parents’ fears and concerns and are going to be working quickly to show our respect for their feelings and to resolve our current situation,” Thomas tells WTOP in an email.

Buffington, who served time for possession of child pornography in Michigan, was allowed to live on church property in January. After learning of his status as a sex offender this week, five parents pulled their children from the program.

Burgess says she didn’t know about Buffington’s background until recently and would never have hired him.

“We’ve made it very clear that this is unacceptable and we’re working towards a resolution.”

At a recent meeting with parents, Thomas defended his hire saying he didn’t believe Buffington was a threat.

Burgess explains the independent school is affiliated with the Church of Bethesda, but that she does not have say on Buffington’s hire.

Buffington was charged with possessing child pornography in 2005 and convicted in 2006.

Buffington has since resigned and moved after officials at the nursery school demanded his removal.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”

………Sarah Tofte

Peggy Edenfield – Agrees to testify against husband

Peggy Edenfield has agreed to testify against her husband and son in exchange for prosecutors not asking that she get the death penalty.

The first of three family members charged with the sexual abuse slaying of 6-year-old Christopher Michael Barrios Jr. could stand trial this year, prosecutors said.

David Edenfield, 59, of Brunswick faces the death penalty if convicted of malice murder in the killing almost two years ago.

District Attorney Stephen Kelley wants to bring Edenfield to trial in late summer or fall. Edenfield’s son, George, a convicted child molester, also faces the death penalty in the slaying. George Edenfield, 33, could face a special civil trial by the end of the year to determine if he is mentally competent to be tried on the criminal charges, Kelley said.

No date has been set for David or George Edenfield. Nor has a trial date been set for Peggy Edenfield, 57, who faces a life sentence in the killing. She is married to David Edenfield and is George Edenfield’s mother.

The five-county Brunswick circuit had 25 homicide cases awaiting trial as of Friday. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in at least seven of those cases, Kelley said.

None is bigger than those for the accused killers of Christopher Barrios Jr., a case that drew national attention.

The boy was killed March 8, 2007. His body was discovered a week later inside a black plastic trash bag hidden in woods about 2 miles from the Canal Mobile Home Park where he lived.

The three Edenfields were the Barrios family’s neighbors. They remain jailed without bail on malice murder, kidnapping and child molestation charges.

Peggy Edenfield has agreed to testify against her husband and son in exchange for prosecutors not asking that she get the death penalty.

Kelley expects pretrial hearings in David Edenfield’s case to resume within a couple months. It’s been slow going, he said, because of the legal procedures mandated by Georgia’s death penalty law.

“It’s all time-consuming, but it’s part of Georgia’s death penalty process,” he said.

Peggy’s son George Edenfield was a registered sex offender.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”

………Sarah Tofte